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Finance and procurement controls (ERP)

Finance and procurement work as one system: every sale, delivery, bill, payment, expense and pay run already posts to the books, so finance never types in what another department recorded.

Roles. In Staff, roles & branches, give people a finance or procurement role: Finance Director, Finance Manager, Accounts Payable Officer, Accounts Receivable Officer, Treasury Officer, Procurement Manager, Procurement Officer, Storekeeper, Department Manager or Company Director. Each sees only what their job needs.

Approval limits. In Approvals > rules (or Finance HQ > Controls > Approval limits) switch on Placing purchase orders, Paying suppliers and Recording expenses, and set up to three limits:

  1. From: at or above this amount one manager approves.
  2. Two approvers from: two different people must approve.
  3. A director must approve from: one of the two must have the director's "approve large amounts" right.

For example: from KES 5,000 one approver; from KES 5,000 to 50,000 two; above 50,000 a director as one of them. You, the owner, can always approve on your own. Nobody approves their own request.

Purchasing controls (Finance HQ > Controls > Purchasing controls):

  • Separate duties: whoever prepared a purchase order can't receive it, and whoever received the goods can't check the supplier's invoice for them. On by default for ERP, wholesale and manufacturing.
  • Budgets: Warn or Stop it when an order or expense goes over budget. Add a Purchases line to a budget to control spending on orders.
  • Quotations: from a set amount, ask for a minimum number of quotations before an order is awarded.

From need to payment

  1. A department asks for goods: Buying > Requests > Ask for goods (with the department and the reason).
  2. Procurement approves it, or taps Get quotations: Buying > Quotations sends the same list to several suppliers by WhatsApp. Record each supplier's prices as they reply; BlueDuka marks the cheapest and the fastest and shows each supplier's delivery record.
  3. Award a quotation and write why. This creates the purchase order at the quoted prices.
  4. If the order is above your limit it shows Awaiting approval; it goes to the supplier once approved, or back to a draft if rejected.
  5. The storekeeper receives the goods: quantities accepted go into stock; damaged, wrong or expired items are recorded as rejected with a reason and are not billed.
  6. Finance opens the bill (Purchases > Bills to pay, tap the bill) and enters the supplier's invoice. BlueDuka matches it against the order and the delivery and shows any price or quantity difference. A difference is only accepted with a note.
  7. Accounts payable pays the supplier. Above the payment limit it waits for approval, then is released.

Finance HQ shows the whole company for the period: revenue, gross and net profit, cash, bank and mobile money balances (with accounting on), what customers owe, what is owed to suppliers and when, orders waiting for approval or still to arrive, budgets, payroll not yet paid, stock value and what falls due in the next 30 days. Each card shows its figure, the change on the period before and a chart: income by product category, expenses by kind, supplier balances, sales over time against the period before, and six months of income against costs. The shortcuts along the top open Accounting, Expenses, Purchases, Customers, Payroll, Stock, Budgets, Approvals and Reports. Pick a branch at the top to see that branch alone, or tap a branch in the Branches card to see its purchase orders, then any order to see its deliveries and bill. Businesses that are not ERP see the same dashboard under Headquarters.

Several companies. An owner of more than one company (Premium and ERP Business plans) can choose Consolidated: all companies at the top. The cards then add every company together (sales between your own companies are taken out), with income, profit and supplier balances by company and a table of the companies side by side. Tap a company to switch to it.

Buying > Insights points out possible duplicate orders, price rises, suppliers who charge more or deliver late, items bought most often and items several branches buy separately (order them together).

Approved and posted records are never deleted: a wrong delivery is corrected with a return to the supplier, a wrong bill with a cancellation or credit, a wrong journal with a reversal. The activity log shows who created, approved, rejected or changed each one, and when.

← Wholesale, distribution and manufacturing · All topics · Quality control (manufacturing and ERP) →

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Need help? Call or WhatsApp the BlueDuka team on +254 727 177 155.